TDP-43 loss and ALS-risk SNPs drive mis-splicing and depletion of UNC13A
Anna‐Leigh Brown, Oscar G. Wilkins, Matthew J. Keuss, Sarah E. Hill, Matteo Zanovello, Weaverly Colleen Lee, Alexander Bampton, Flora Lee, Laura Masino, Yue Qi, Sam Bryce-Smith, Ariana Gatt, Martina Hallegger, Delphine Fagegaltier, Hemali Phatnani, Hemali Phatnani, Justin Kwan, Dhruv Sareen, James R. Broach, Zachary Simmons, Ximena Arcila-Londono, Edward B. Lee, Vivianna M. Van Deerlin, Neil A. Shneider, Ernest Fraenkel, Lyle W. Ostrow, Frank Baas, Noah Zaitlen, James D. Berry, Andrea Malaspina, Pietro Fratta, Gregory A. Cox, Leslie M. Thompson, Steven Finkbeiner, Efthimios Dardiotis, Timothy M. Miller, Siddharthan Chandran, Suvankar Pal, Eran Hornstein, Daniel J. MacGowan, Terry Heiman‐Patterson, Molly Hammell, Nikolaos A. Patsopoulos, Oleg Butovsky, Josh Dubnau, Avindra Nath, Robert Bowser, Matthew B. Harms, Eleonora Aronica, Mary Poss, Jennifer E. Phillips‐Cremins, John F. Crary, Nazem Atassi, Dale J. Lange, Darius J. Adams, Leonidas Stefanis, Marc Gotkine, Robert H. Baloh, Suma Babu, Towfique Raj, Sabrina Paganoni, Ophir Shalem, Colin Smith, Bin Zhang, Brent T. Harris, Iris Broce, Vivian E. Drory, John Ravits, Corey T. McMillan, Vilas Menon, Lani F. Wu, Steven J. Altschuler, Yossef Lerner, Rita Sattler, Kendall Van Keuren‐Jensen, Orit Rozenblatt–Rosen, Kerstin Lindblad‐Toh, Katharine Nicholson, Peter K. Gregersen, Jeong‐Ho Lee, Sulev Kõks, Stephen Muljo, Jia Newcombe, Emil K. Gustavsson, Sahba Seddighi, Joel F. Reyes, Steven L. Coon, Daniel M. Ramos, Giampietro Schiavo, Elizabeth Fisher, Towfique Raj, Maria Secrier, Tammaryn Lashley, Jernej Ule, Emanuele Buratti, Jack Humphrey, Michael E. Ward, Pietro Fratta
Abstract
Abstract Variants of UNC13A , a critical gene for synapse function, increase the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia 1–3 , two related neurodegenerative diseases defined by mislocalization of the RNA-binding protein TDP-43 4,5 . Here we show that TDP-43 depletion induces robust inclusion of a cryptic exon in UNC13A , resulting in nonsense-mediated decay and loss of UNC13A protein. Two common intronic UNC13A polymorphisms strongly associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia risk overlap with TDP-43 binding sites. These polymorphisms potentiate cryptic exon inclusion, both in cultured cells and in brains and spinal cords from patients with these conditions. Our findings, which demonstrate a genetic link between loss of nuclear TDP-43 function and disease, reveal the mechanism by which UNC13A variants exacerbate the effects of decreased TDP-43 function. They further provide a promising therapeutic target for TDP-43 proteinopathies.